Secaucus residents made their voices heard in Tuesday's referendum by voting in favor of a $27.4 million construction project to expand and upgrade school facilities, as well as the associated tax increase to pay for it.

Officials said the referendum passed at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday with a tally of 759 votes for the project - expected to take about 30 months to complete - and 381 votes against.

“I was confident that people would do the right thing,” said Mayor Michael Gonnelli. “The community needed it. It has to happen.”

The plan calls for construction of an academic wing that includes 11 classrooms, a green lab and an administration office; and a physical education wing totaling approximately 58,870 square feet at the middle school and high school, which are attached on Mill Ridge Road.

Under the plan, sixth-graders will attend the middle school instead of the Huber Street and Clarendon elementary schools. Currently the two elementary school are K-6.

To pay for the project, the town expects to issue $27.4 million in bonds to be paid back over 15 to 30 years. The state has approved debt service aid of nearly $7 million, town officials said.

For the owner of an average home assessed at $170,000, payments toward the bonds will be $34 in 2014, $107 each year from 2015 to 2017, $42.50 each year from 2018 to 2021 and $24 each year from 2022 to 2034, officials said.

The mayor said about 65 percent of the project will be paid for by taxes collected from commercial properties in town.

Currently 2,185 students attend town schools, but officials project that 2,500 will attend by 2018, officials said.

“We are packed, the schools are packed,” said Superintendent of Schools Robert Presuto when asked why the project is important. Presuto paced back and forth in town hall as the numbers were rolling in from the polls but from early in the evening he said he was confident the referendum would pass.